Nutrition Introducing new foods? please help!

[madelineelaine]

I will be getting 2 young guinea pigs soon and I'm wondering if I should start feeding them veggies right away, or if I should slowly introduce them to new things? They will be from the pet store (please don't shun me, I've already looked in shelters and there aren't any close to me) and I'm not sure how old they'll be. I know they aren't that old though, they're VERY tiny. So should I just launch straight into feeding them all sorts of veg or should I slowly introduce it? I don't want them to be malnourished.

 

[jm_1234]

Wow you are very brave saying you are going to a pet store on this forum:eye-poppi Where are you located maybe someone will know a rescue around you? I am just warning you that I have bought 4 of my piggies from petstores(before I really knew about petstores) and had problems with all of them. You need to be extremely careful if that is the route you are going to take! As for the veggies just start off slow and introduce one veggies at a time with a couple days in between each new veggie. The may also be very picky because most pet store piggies haven't had a veggie before so they might not even eat them at first. Have you tried craigslist or kijiji?

 

[mufasa]

I'll toss in a pet store warning too. I bought Mufasa from a pet shop and he was dead of a URI 15 days later. He had it when I bought him, but the symptoms never got bad till the end. If you don't have a shelter near you, why not check out online and newspaper classified ads? I got one of my two current piggies through an ad.

Now on to your question. Mufasa was very young when I got him, but I offered him a variety of veggies early on and he was willing to at least try most of them. Start early and do some experimenting to find out what your piggies' favorites are.

 

[sdpiggylvr]

Have you completely, 100% exhausted your search for homeless guinea pigs? If there is a pet store near you, there are people who want to rehome their guinea pigs. That means Craigslist and newspaper ads. Look on Perfinder -- any shelters or rescues within 50 miles? Make a day trip out of it. After all, you only adopt your guinea pigs once every several years and a few hours' drive should be doable. Many people have driven that or more to avoid going to a pet store. It may sound ridiculous, but it isn't when you consider the neglect and cruelty behind the scenes at pet stores. Check Craigslist in the community, pets, farm, and for sale sections. Look on Guinea Pig Zone. Check this page: https://www.guinealynx.info/rescues.html.

As for feeding, start slow with just a leaf of lettuce and maybe a piece of bell pepper. You'll find out what they don't like quite easily this way! Once you see they are eating the staples you can try some new vegetables - parsley, cilantro, tomato, cucumber. Check the veggie chart for more: https://www.guineapigcages.com/threads/22156/.

Good luck!

 

[madelineelaine]

thank you I will look into rescues a little bit more and see if I can find anything, but our pet store is a 2 minute drive away so it will be hard to convince my parents to go anywhere else, especially if it's far away.

 

[jm_1234]

You might be able to convince them to drive a bit more distance if you let them know that petstore pigs come with many more problems then rescue ones because of the way they are housed, and taken care of behind the scenes. Rescue pigs are in better conditions and are looked after with vet care. They are only adopted out when they are healthy where petstores just want to sell the animal and make a buck. Not only that but petstores are awful at sexing pigs and will often be wrong which means you could end up with babies you now need to find homes for, as well as possible death of your mommy/baby piggies. This happened to me twice since I started owning guinea pigs and I ended up with unwanted litters as well as death of 2 babies. One of my guinea pigs came with a URI and ringworm(which can be transfered to you by the way). Just be careful

 

[madelineelaine]

I already read up on determening the gender and I plan to check both pigs before buying them, if I go the petstore route. I am still looking into shelters though

 

[TheGuineas]

I bought from a pet store too.. and I bought my first one ever there not knowing about rescues anyway this one actually died a day after I bought him... I was devastated and thought I did something wrong.. but when i brought him back they told me that happens sometimes.. and gave me another one. Just thought I'd share and let others see this cute little guy..



Also though back to the food thing... I need help doing that for my picky eaters too... I haven't really gotten them to ever eat any fruit.. they made the funniest faces when the licked the Kiwi though... total sour faces! So funny! Anyway though... any good ideas on fruit picky Guinea pigs may like?